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February 25, 2007

Semi-"universal"

Semi-"universal": Odd line at Information Week: "Microsoft's WPF technology competes with Adobe's forthcoming Apollo development platform and its Flash and PDF software. The two companies, says Melissa Webster, program director of content and digital media technologies at IDC, 'are doing it to provide the same thing, a universal client for Internet apps.'" Windows Presentation Framework is the presentation layer in Microsoft Vista, and parts of it are available for Win XP users who consent to a meaningful download and installation. The author may be confusing this with Microsoft's upcoming browser plugin, called "Jolt" or "WPF/e", which will provide some imaging abilities in older Windows or in current Macintosh OS, and which someday may achieve a deployed audience. Adobe's Apollo project will be more a cross-OS application runtime than an OS-specific imaging engine -- it is not yet a universal client capability, as Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader are today. Microsoft may attempt to deploy their eventual browser plugin as a "universal" Mac/Win client, but the Windows Presentation Foundation itself will parallel similar operating system amenities from Apple, and some Linux projects. A "universal client for Internet apps" would need to provide a logic engine installed on various audience machines, and I don't see evidence that either WPF or WPF/E are attempting to provide such capability. Even the analysts are finding it confusing...!